The Second Season of Gotham Will Begin with Two Major Deaths

Gotham has promised a continued "rise of the villains" this season, and with James Frain's Theo Galavan coming to unleash escaped Arkham Asylum inmates on Batman's home city, it's about to be a bloodbath. According to a new report from TV Guide's Mega Buzz, two major characters are about to meet their maker in the first few episodes of the second season.

"One of the deaths is so sudden and unexpected, it caught us completely off-guard. The other, meanwhile, rocks an already reeling James Gordon to the core and will serve as a motivating force for him all season long."

The "sudden and unexpected" death is worrisome, as it basically could be anyone. Well, not anyone, as a Batman prequel show likely wouldn't kill off Bruce Wayne, pre-commissioner Jim Gordon, or classic villains Penguin, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Riddler, or Catwoman. But pretty much anyone else is fair game, and we just desperately hope it's not Alfred or Bullock, as they provide some of the few highlights of this disappointingly silly show.

The second death, which will serve as a "motivating force" for Gordon, sounds so much like fridging we're pre-emptively rolling our eyes. We wouldn't be sad if Barbara died, nor would we be surprised if Leslie died, but the trope of killing off a love interest to "motivate" a man is tired and should be retired. But there's a chance that neither death will happen, as the show seems invested in making Barbara a villain, maybe even fan favorite Harley Quinn, and Morena Baccarin was just promoted to series regular (although shows occasionally do that as a fake-out before a major character death). Hopefully it will be someone else that's more expendable, although all of the expendable characters seem to be female, like Essen or Montoya, so that wouldn't really help the fridging problem.